A Tale of Two Hearts
by starspangledsprocket
Summary: What really happened to Jenny after she sped away in that spaceship at the end of "The Doctor's Daughter"? I'm rubbish at summaries, but it's better than how I've described it- promise.
1. Chapter 1

**_A/N: Hello! So this is my first fanfic, so please feel free to pick it apart (though do it as nicely as possible please! I'm a sensitive soul). So basically this is a Jenny fic, but will probably include more "central characters" later. Your guess is as good as mine- I'm not totally sure where I'm going to go with this yet :')_**

With a shocked, echoing gasp for air, a small, pale, dark haired girl jerked up from her seat and became immediately aware of the restraints around her wrists and ankles tethering her to the, apparent, dentists chair she found herself in.

Blinking confusedly, her immediate thought was _how long have I been unconscious? _closely followed by _where the hell am I? _and _how did I get here?_ and, upon glancing around the room, she gathered very little information to answer her questions. The room in question appeared empty apart from herself, the chair she was sat in, a metal tray with some lethal looking instruments set on it next to the chair and a spotlight above her that shone so brightly she was surprised she could see anything else at all.

"Ah. Back with us I see", a deep, threatening voice rang out through the room, causing the girl to jump and twist her head quickly to the side. A tall, thin, point of a man (well, she assumed it was a man) stepped partially out of the shadows to her left.

_Has he been there the entire time?_ the girl thought warily to herself.

He wore a long, white lab coat splattered (rather worryingly) with a considerable amount of blood, and his hands were linked behind his back. At the angle she was laid, however, she wasn't able to make out her captor's face, thanks to the spotlight slowly blinding her.

"Where am I?" The girl picked the more pressing of her questions to aim at the lanky body stood stiffly beside her.

"I'm afraid, my dear, you're dead." His voice was becoming increasingly monotonal and lifeless, to the point where the girl physically cringed, but she soon recovered and tried to focus, once again, on her captor's face.

"Well then I must have pissed God off to the max because this is _not _what I expected heaven to be like", she replied sarcastically, tugging subconsciously at her wrist restraints. "Oh who am I kidding?" she added as an afterthought. "We both know I'm going to hell. But your statement is still false- I've never been more aware that I'm alive than right now. My hearts are going faster than Usain Bolt after a litre of coffee."

Her captor said nothing for a moment, and the girl became increasingly aware that she'd just said something incredibly stupid.

"Ooh...", she breathed aloud, inwardly cursing herself for running her mouth without thinking. "I wasn't supposed to tell you that I have two hearts, was I?" She looked up slowly- a grimace on her face- and inhaled through her teeth. Her captor was removing his white, clinical gloves and promptly threw them onto the metal tray beside him.

"That was a lot easier than I expected. I didn't even have to torture you!" he told her, mockery thick in his tone. It surprised her how much of a nice change it made to his usually deadpan voice.

"Ok, so now you know my little secret, what're you going to do to me? Harvest my organs for experimentation? Chop me up into little bits and eat me? Oh- the last time I was captured they tried to peel me. Peel me! Apparently some old duchess biddy wanted a Timelord coat and-"

"Who are you?" the man snarled, leaning in so their faces were almost touching. His hideously burnt, disfigured face came into the light and the girl physically groaned with horror.

"Oh, Jesus... Christ! Wow- you, my friend, are one beautiful specimen. Are you married or-"

The girl, quickly eyeing a key around his neck, head butted her captor and, as he slid unconsciously to the floor, managed to hold onto the key and pull it from around his neck. Thinking quickly and listening to see if anyone outside heard the man collapse to the floor, the girl manoeuvred the key in her still restrained hand to undo the lock, then proceeded to unlock the other hand and feet.

"Well... that could have been worse I suppose...", she reassured herself as she raced to a door she hadn't noticed before behind her. Upon pulling the door open and stepping out into a white corridor, however, loud alarm bells began to ring out and a voice came over the intercom.

"_Prisoner escaping. All available soldiers to the east wing._"

The girl heard them coming before she saw them appear down the corridor to her left so, sighing in irritation, she took off in the opposite direction. Bullets rained down around her but she didn't stop, simply turned to see how much distance she had on them, when she immediately collided with something solid and extremely hard. She turned, falling gracelessly backwards onto the floor as the soldiers caught up and surrounded her, guns clicking as they reloaded. She looked up slowly. Standing over her was a monster the likes of which she had never seen before, but her blood immediately turned icy. She sighed again, raising her arms in surrender.

"You're going to kill me now, aren't you?"


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: So here's the second chapter! Sorry it took me a few days to upload- with college starting next week I decided it was probably about time to start reading the books I've been set for my English Literature course. But fear not! I'm going to keep uploading as regularly as I can, and I'm starting to get a picture of where this story is going to go, so s'all good! Thanks for the story alerts- it means a lot! R&R please- it motivates me to keep writing! **

"Who are you?" a hateful, snarling voice rang through the darkness; the question seemed to have been asked over a million times.

"I'm no-one," was the reply, spoken by the small, dark haired girl. It had been approximately a week since she had been caught trying to flee from Meridane 5, where she had initially been caught for stealing resources to help fix her broken ship.

The girl had seriously deteriorated during her week spent in captivity. Her skin hung loosely around her skinny frame, her eyes had deep bags under them and she had numerous scars and gashes etched into her slowly greying limbs. Her usually thick, luscious, dark hair had been crudely hacked at by her captors and was now short and stuck out at odd angles and lengths. A thin sheen of cold sweat clung to her entire body, leaving stains on her already dirty white shirt, and rolling down her face before dripping onto her, again, dirty red military jacket. She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath, resisting on every level to give them what they wanted- the truth.

"We have ways of making you talk," her captor whispered menacingly to her, leaning right in to her face. If she hadn't been chained rigidly by her hands and feet to the ceiling and floor of her cell, she would have punched him straight between the eyes. Her head had even been strapped to the wall behind her so she couldn't head butt him either.

_At least they've learnt something from last time _she thought to herself, smirking slightly as she recalled knocking her first interrogator- who she had christened Mr. Burny- unconscious. She hadn't seen him since, and had been given this new interrogator straight after her recapture.

"Do you find something amusing?" her new captor- dubbed Sir Mammoth Moobs- snarled, picking up a small device that hummed with energy in his hand.

"Oh, I was just thinking about how we're all going to laugh about this once you let me go," she replied airily, grinning despite the week's worth of torture she had suffered.

"Oh, I don't think you're going anywhere, girlie. Your case is being processed even as we speak, and they _will _find you guilty. Then all that's left is to take you into the city and make an example of you," he told her with a malevolent smirk.

"Well that's a bit unfair. Don't I even get a last phone call or something? Although, I have no idea who I'd call- I don't know any phone numbers... and I have no friends..." she rambled slightly, before falling silent again at her captor's less than happy expression.

"Anyway... Your tests have produced some pretty curious results. Care to enlighten us?" Mammoth Moobs asked her, sidestepping her rant completely.

"I'm sure I don't know to what you're referring," the girl replied with a hint of mockery in her tone.

"Who are you?" Mammoth Moobs yelled angrily, pressing what she recognised, too sickeningly late, as a taser to her chest. She yelled aloud in pure agony and began to jerk around in her restraints as a shock of electricity forced its way into her body, taking the wind right out of her.

"Gahh! I'm your worst nightmare!" she panted back, staring directly into the eyes of the torturer. He paused for a moment, shocked at the sudden age he saw in the girl's eyes. She could be no more than, what, twelve or thirteen? But her eyes showed hundreds of years worth of misery and suffering; pain and loss. How was that possible?

Mammoth Moobs gasped, taking a step backwards from this impossible girl, suddenly unnerved. The girl continued to stare at him and recognised a look of doubt spreading across his features. As the pain wracking her body seemed to subside and her breathing rate returned to normal, however, the age held captive in her eyes seemed to retreat back into her very soul.

"What are you?" Mammoth Moobs asked, a slight waver in his voice. He took a step forwards again and raised the taser, but in protection this time.

"At the minute I'm not best pleased," the girl replied simply, shifting her feet slightly into a more comfortable position.

It struck her torturer as odd that, now that she was over the pain of the shock, she didn't seem any less like herself. She was still joking, even though her situation seemed at a loss. She didn't even, contrary to her statement, seem mad at all- simply sad, and trying to lighten the mood. The man found that his guard had dropped somewhat- that he suddenly felt very bad about hurting this child.

"Why do you do that?" he asked curiously, dropping the taser to his side again. The girl noticed the change in his tone, how it had become softer and more human.

"Do what?" she replied, raising an eyebrow.

"Joke? Surely now isn't the time? You should be screaming hate at me, make me want to regret the day that I ever hurt you. But I don't know- the more I hurt you, the more... _compassionate _you seem to be," he told her, watching her eyes for another sign of age. The girl simply smiled ruefully, however.

"When you've lived as long as I have, you'll understand. Being angry with something or someone won't make it go away- won't make things better. Compassion is grown through suffering and, when you've suffered like I have, you get a lot of practice," she replied softly.

She knew by his expression and years of experience that this man wasn't as bad as the others- didn't deserve to be looked upon as cruel or vicious when he clearly had at least some redeeming features. Looking up at the man stood before her, dressed in a white lab coat and clinical gloves, taser still by his side, the girl felt a pang of sympathy for him- for the life he had, most probably, been forced to lead.

The man was just about to speak when a door behind them swung open- light spilling in to the otherwise dark room- and a soldier stood in the frame.

"Her case has been processed. The bosses say she's guilty. She's been sentenced to death by firing squad. Prep her to be taken behind the chemical sheds in five minutes."

The door slammed shut as the soldier exited the room, leaving torturer and tortured alone in the room again. The man turned to the small body strung up against the back wall.

"They're going to kill you..." he said, a look of genuine sorrow crossing his face. The girl shrugged as best she could, still restrained.

"All good things come to an end," she quoted simply. "What's your name, by the way?" she added, realising that this man deserved better than _Sir Mammoth Moobs_.

"Graeme," he replied, slightly puzzled by her, seemingly, random question.

"Graeme? Great name," she replied, smiling again.

They stood in silence for a few moments, simply staring at each other, before Graeme seemed to snap out of the daze he found himself in.

"Right, erm, I've got to get you ready," he muttered slightly guiltily.

"Of course you have," the girl agreed, no less cheery than before.

"It's my job," Graeme added, feeling like he needed to explain why he had to hand this girl off to be slaughtered.

"It certainly is," she nodded as he unchained her hands and, begrudgingly, handcuffed them together in front of her.

"I mean I have a family- a wife and twin boys and-"

"-Graeme. It's fine," the girl told him softly, cutting him off mid-sentence as he cuffed her feet, making sure to loosen them enough so she could still walk in a sort of penguin style shuffle. "I've lived long enough," she whispered earnestly.

Graeme nodded, unstrapping her head from the wall as the door swung open again and two armed soldiers entered.

"It's time," one of them stated.

"Wait!" Graeme called as they went to grab the girl and drag her away. They paused and Graeme took the girl's hand in both of his, before shaking it. "It was a pleasure to meet you," he told her in all honesty. "But I never got your name," he added. The girl smiled as she felt a small key pressed discreetly into her hand.

"It's Jenny," she told him, making sure to seem worried on behalf of the soldiers. "And a word for the wise, Graeme? Make sure you look after that family. Never know what you have until you lose it," she murmured quietly, sudden tears shining brightly in her eyes.

"I will," Graeme promised, letting go of her hand as she was carted away by the armed soldiers. Just as she disappeared from sight, however, she flashed him a huge grin and winked.

"Jenny..." Graeme repeated to himself once he was alone. He had a strange feeling, as he smiled and chuckled to himself, that she was going to be more than alright...

**A/N: So there you go! We finally have a confirmation that the young girl is Jenny- the Doctor's daughter! But will she manage to escape without being killed? Who are these "bosses" that the soldier spoke of? And how much like her dad really is Jenny? Update soon! R&R please! **


	3. Chapter 3

_**A/N: So here's chapter three! They seem to be getting longer and longer each time I write, but I thought it was time for a bit of action and so this monster of a chapter was born! R&R please, so I know I'm not wasting my time with this, thanks :)**_

So it had all come down to this. After four hundred and twelve years of exploring the universe, saving countless planets and civilisations and doing an obscene amount of running, this was how Jenny was going to die- unceremoniously riddled with bullets shot by twenty armed guards behind some chemical sheds.

_Can't even be sure if you'll regenerate_, she thought dully to herself as she stood, surrounded by loaded guns and still cuffed by the hands and feet.

She thought back to the day of her birth- the things she had learnt from her father and the choices she had since made because of him.

"_You are an echo."_

Those words still haunted her. Was that really the way he saw her? He must have done- he hadn't cared enough to wait for the start of her regeneration cycle and keep his promise of taking her with him. And that killed her a little bit.

But was that really regeneration she had suffered? She'd read books about Time Lords on her travels and they all regenerated differently to her. Once mortally wounded her mind was the first to change, but it could take up to a month afterwards for her body to change completely as well. A full month of complete agony as every single cell in her body started afresh. The best she could do was curl up in a safe place, like a dog waiting to die, and hope nothing nasty crossed her path as she writhed and thrashed in pain, oblivious to anything and everything else around her. As far as she knew, that was the complete opposite of a normal Time Lord.

So had she just gotten lucky? Had the Source, upon its evaporation into the air around them, replenished her life? She had regenerated a grand total of six times, however, so she doubted it could be just that. Perhaps a mixture of the two? She honestly didn't know, and had even less knowledge of how many regenerations she had left.

But did she really want to regenerate again? She had seen and lived through so much, lost so many people she held dear and made so many wrong decisions, and it haunted her constantly. Wouldn't it just be better to end it?

_No_, a small voice in the back of her head told her. _You know you don't deserve death. Everything you've done wrong- the species you've killed and the ones you failed to save- you deserve to live forever and suffer for it all._

"Prisoner 0159, your DNA matches with the enemy known as the Doctor. Your crimes before even entering this planet's inner atmosphere are staggering. For this, as well as being pronounced guilty of stealing resources and raw materials from our stores, you will be deleted."

Jenny looked up suddenly, the words snapping her out of her depressed funk. She stared into the eyes of her murderers- the big bosses who had ordered her execution. Two Cybermen stood behind the ring of soldiers, their faces unfeeling and their voices monotonal.

"You think I'm the Doctor?" she asked curiously. The soldiers looked taken aback by her sudden response.

"DNA match confirmed," the Cyberman to her left told her.

"Ooh," Jenny gasped aloud, recognising their mistake. "No, no, no- I'm not the Doctor, really. Yes, ok, I have his DNA, but I was made in a machine! I can't believe this actually _is _a misunderstanding!" she chuckled to herself. "Alright, you can let me go now," she told them, taking a step forwards.

"Stay where you are!" a soldier in front of her yelled, raising his gun higher. Jenny came to a halt and raised her cuffed hands in surrender.

"DNA match confirmed as the Doctor. Your crimes against the Cybermen are endless. You will be deleted."

"Look- I don't know what he's done to piss you off, but I'm sorry, ok? If I ever finally run into him again, I'll give him a smack on the hand. But, seriously, I'm not him," Jenny said quickly, glancing between each Cyberman.

She had heard many things about them on her travels but, up until a couple of days ago, she hadn't actually seen one. She didn't think they looked overly frightening, but their blank stares did unnerve her somewhat, the tear-drop etched into the corner of each eye more so.

"Look- I'm going to give you one chance to let me go, and we'll forget any of this happened. Just one chance. I highly suggest you take it," she advised them seriously, looking into each soldier's face before turning to the Cyberman.

"Access denied."

Jenny chuckled bitterly at their words, knowing that it always came down to the same thing in the end.

"Then that makes things very, very simple. And do you know what's going to happen now?" she asked, eyes dark and piercing. "Firstly I'm going to undo these restraints, and then I'm most probably going to slaughter every last one of you in order to escape. I will tear this entire planet apart if it means that I can go free. I'm selfish like that, you see, and spiteful. Now you tell me this- does that sound _anything _like what the Doctor would say?" she spat at them, scarily calm. The human soldiers looked as though they were beginning to have second thoughts, but the Cybermen remained unmoving.

"Those words have been spoken by the Doctor many times throughout history. The command stands. Any final requests before you are deleted?" the Cyberman to Jenny's right asked. She sighed to calm herself as anger gripped at her hearts.

"Well I had a hat... It belonged to Frank Sinatra, and I'm rather attached to it," she growled defiantly, raising an expectant eyebrow.

Reluctantly, a young soldier of no more than eighteen or nineteen stepped forwards holding a slightly squashed, rather small, black top hat. Attached to it was a pair of high-tech, copper coloured goggles and a red slip of material, the ends of which hung over the rim at the back. The soldier placed the hat on Jenny's head with slightly shaking hands, then retreated back to his place amongst the other soldiers.

"I also had a gun, if anyone wants to make my escape any easier," Jenny quipped. She wasn't, however, given her gun back.

"Enough time has been wasted. Your crimes against the Cybermen are inexcusable and, for that, you will be deleted," one Cyberman told her as it raised its arm along with the soldiers raising their weapons. "Delete. Delete. Delete."

Jenny took a deep breath and dived to safety behind a chemical shed as the sound of bullets tore through the air. Yells and orders soon followed, as well as the pattering of approaching feet and the heavy clunking of Cybermen boots, but Jenny concentrated on sliding a small key out of her sleeve and quickly unlocking her restraints. That done, and growing increasingly aware of the fact that she had to keep moving, she took off at a sprint into the maze of pipes and chemical sheds she found herself in, gripping her hat tightly to keep it atop her head.

–

Blood pounding in her ears and dangerously out of breath to the point where black dots were beginning to form before her eyes, Jenny finally skidded to a stop in a slight clearing very much like the one she had nearly just been killed in. She could still hear the shouting and occasional gunshot of the soldiers still pursuing her, but they seemed distant now.

She had maybe a few minutes at the most to come up with some form of plan. She couldn't just keep running- she had no idea where she was- and so, climbing onto a large pipe that led into the nearest chemical shed, she craned her neck to try and pinpoint her location. To her right, perhaps half a mile away, there appeared to be some form of military style aircraft hangar. It was her only chance.

"There she is!" She heard a yell to her left, closely followed by a bullet grazing her ear as it flew past. She turned and saw the soldiers about three hundred metres from her, on the floor, pointing up at her on her perch.

"Shit."

Jenny quickly jumped down from the pipe, and was just about to sprint off again, when she noticed something. Stamped on the side of the pipe, and all others in the clearing, was a flame icon and the words _warning: flammable. _A sudden idea struck her.

Gripping at as many taps as she could get her hands on, she twisted and listened for the sound of escaping gas. When she could smell it she pulled the scrap of red material from her hat, tied it around her mouth and nose and crossed the clearing to turn the taps on the pipes across the way. After this was done, everything was set.

The first soldiers entered the clearing and Jenny sprinted to the exit- towards the second half of the chemical shed maze.

"Here I am!" she screamed, he voice muffled by the material covering the bottom half of her face, not stopping to look back as what felt like thousands of shots followed her. Then, in a split second, one of them (she couldn't tell which) caught the gas and everything seemed to erupt in an ear-splitting explosion of colour and heat.

Very aware of the numerous other explosions that followed the first, as other sheds began to go up in flame one by one, Jenny ran like she had never run before- her eyes set on the looming aircraft carrier. Her senses had been knocked out of whack- her sight and hearing seeming to flicker after being so close after the explosion hit- but she didn't let it stop her. She had to keep going.

Flames licked at the back of her legs and shoulders as she charged round the remaining, un-exploded chemical sheds that kept her from her only form of escape. But then the bodies began to fall. Hundreds of disembodied limbs rained down around her, fountains of blood and ash following. Jenny gagged, but had to keep going- there was nothing she could do for them now.

Somewhere, in the back of her scrambled mind, she hoped Graeme had been intelligent enough to grab his family and get as far away from this facility as they could as soon as she was dragged away. She didn't want their blood on her hands as well.

Finally, as a torched, decapitated skull came flying past her own, she made it to the hangar. A large clump of ash seemed to have lodged itself in her throat and she coughed and spluttered; her limbs felt tight and painful with fatigue, but she couldn't afford to stop now- not when she was so close. Yelling through effort, she threw all of her weight against the hangar door and slipped inside, pausing for just a second as the cool, fresh air inside washed over her sweating, dirt-and-blood splattered face.

It was dark in the hangar and appeared empty apart from a small number of plane-like ships and a few metal crates. Flames scratched at the high windows outside every now and then, reminding Jenny that she had to move or she'd get caught up in the fires as they would, surely, sweep through the hangar soon as well.

Still panting and occasionally retching, she walked shakily over to the nearest ship. It was smaller up close- smaller, even, than her ship had been- but it seemed durable. She was just about to climb inside when something caught her eye. Turning, she saw a small pile of Vortex Manipulators stacked on top of one of the large, metal crates. She reached out and took one, just for good measure, before climbing aboard the ship.

It was basically just a very small control room with wings- barely bigger than that of a spitfire or something similar- but it was all she needed. The engines flared up as she pressed a large red button, before guiding it into the air and bursting, slightly clumsily, through the roof and up out into the dirty, ash-speckled air.

_I'm finally free_, she thought slightly bitterly to herself as she dared to peek through the window and saw fires burning as far as the horizon, and charred bodies beginning to pile up in the middle of it all. _But at what cost?_

_**A/N: Duh duh duhhhhhh. So she's finally escaped! There's a lot of angst beginning to build up though, so how is that going to come to a head? Where will she go next? How has she been affected by what she's just done? Stay tuned to find out! Once again, please R&R :)**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**A/N: Sorry it's a bit of a short one this time- college seems to be taking up all of my time! I had an English Language lecture today on nouns (fun, right?), and I may have spent the time that I was supposed to be working composing the beginning of this chapter instead... All for you guys! I'm not updating as often as I'd like to, but don't fret- I've got some ideas in the works at the minute and I promise I'll get them down on paper (or computer) as soon as I can :)**_

Monster.

It was such a tiny word when you thought about it. A concrete noun; seven letters, two syllables, two vowels and five consonants. It was really quite insignificant in your mind, or even written on paper, but held so much power in reality.

Jenny had met many monsters in her four hundred and twelve years. Creatures so despicable, so mind-numbingly, irreconcilably evil that she sometimes wondered how the universe was still standing. She had realised pretty early on that a monster wasn't just a word, or even a being, though. It was so much more.

A monster was an idea. It was a game of Chinese whispers, constantly changing its form as its story was passed from generation to generation and, as Jenny sat safely in her little ship just outside Meridane 5's outer atmosphere, watching the entire planet explode and burn, she realised that she was the very worst monster of them all.

She'd managed to destroy an entire planet. _Again. _

Cursed; she was almost certain of it. Wherever she went, death and destruction followed her. Perhaps the worst part of that thought, though, was that there was a part of her- no matter how small that part was- that revelled in it all. Killing was programmed into her DNA- the very base of her existence focused on imaginative ways to slaughter and maim- and, no matter how hard she tried to repress that side of her, a small, dark place in the bottom of her corroded soul still felt a rush of adrenaline once put into a battle situation.

She had always functioned best under pressure- in life or death situations- because she was able to flip a switch within her and become not only what she was created to be- a heartless soldier- but the fully formed, merciless monster that her reputation proceeded, and so could fight her way out of pretty much any and every situation. Sometimes she told herself that she didn't want to escape- didn't want to keep killing- but as soon as she found herself in that sort of situation she would find herself- her compassionate self- completely powerless to the beast that hid beneath her skin. It was its instinct to try and escape, no matter the consequences.

Sighing deeply as her inner conflict seemed unlikely to settle any time soon, Jenny took one last look at the planet that had pretty much been swallowed by fire and smoke right before her eyes, then turned her little ship away and headed out towards the stars. Where she would go next, she didn't know. Usually she would have been filled with a sense of excitement and wonder over that prospect, but now all she felt was a dull pain- not only from her increasingly reddening, burnt skin that she hadn't noticed before, but from the pit of her stomach as well.

_When did I become this? _she asked herself, seeing her gaunt face, speckled with dried blood and ash, reflected in the windscreen in front of her. The urge to vomit rose inside her.

Of course she knew there were many factors- the abandonment by her father, having no-one to raise or guide her when she was young and foolish, learning the hard way that some things were just meant to be _left alone_- but she could pretty much pin the birth of all her most pressing problems down to one specific day. A day she would never forget for as long as she lived, a day... No. She couldn't think about that. It had been the worst day of her life- the fuel that most of her nightmares and inner rage still ran on. She wasn't allowed to be angry now- not when she was supposed to be mourning the, undoubtedly, countless innocent people whom she had murdered before even stopping to think.

"Warning- now entering planetary orbit. Impact in thirty seconds." A monotonal, female voice sounded all around her and she jerked back into reality. Glancing at the clock on the dashboard, she realised she had been flying for hours and hadn't even realised. It was surprising she hadn't crashed before now, really...

A series of sharp, warning beeps began as a large, blue and green planet loomed ahead of her. She gripped at the steering rods in an attempt to turn herself around, but knew before she'd even tried that she was trapped in the planet's gravitational pull. There was nothing she could do except buckle up and hope the ground wasn't too hard.

The outside of the small ship began to glow a fiery red as it hit the planet's atmosphere, gaining speed fast. Jenny saw, to her overall (though not total) dismay, that parts of her vehicle were beginning to peel away and spiral to the ground. She was breaking up on entry.

When an entire wing snapped like a twig and went hurtling away, Jenny realised that no amount of pressing buttons or pulling levers was going to be able to save her so, as she hurtled towards a mass of green that littered the blue around it, she resigned herself to the fact that, one way or another, it was highly unlikely that she was going to get out of this without at least a new face being required. She didn't really mind that, actually- this regeneration had been very unkind to her. Nobody listened to a thirteen year old, no matter how clever or insistent they were.

As she was thinking this, it took her a few more seconds than it should have to realise, amidst all the green that was quickly beginning to turn grey and beige and burgundy as cities began to reveal themselves in patchworks below her disintegrating ship, she was spiralling towards, what appeared to be, an actually quite large lake. Maybe there was still hope!

As the last of her ship fell apart around her, leaving Jenny free falling towards the body of water below her, she let a yell escape her lips for the first time and, as she hit the water, the last comprehensible thought that came to mind was: _maybe, finally, my fire will be doused. _

_**A/N: So there you go! I realised a couple of days ago, going back over some of my previous chapters, that I should have probably said that I don't own Doctor Who, etc. I don't. Also, could I possibly pester you for a comment? They make my day :)**_

_**More soon! **_


	5. Chapter 5

_**A/N: A longer chapter this time! It took me an entire day to write this one and, originally, it was about twice as long, but I've decided to split it up into two or three chapters, so there's still a lot to come! Enjoy m'lovelies, and could you possibly drop me a comment when you're finished reading? Comments make me a happy girlie :) **_

_Not even a bloody scratch._

Jenny had been wandering for hours- the remnants of her wrecked ship safely parked in the bottom of the lake and surrounding land behind her. Apart from being soaking wet and about an inch away from having lost her hat to an angry swan, however, she was no worse for wear than she had been before the crash. If anything, the cold water had actually soothed her burnt skin, and she certainly looked a lot cleaner to say the least.

A quick scan from the Vortex Manipulator still strapped to her wrist (and, surprisingly, still working) told her that she was in the middle of the British Moors, Earth, on 13th March 2025, at approximately 4:43 in the afternoon. Realising she was really rather hungry and tired, and feeling extremely exposed in this place of complete open wilderness for miles around, she reached over and tapped in the co-ordinates for London- the only city she was aware of on Earth- and braced herself as the device sucked her from reality and shot her, like a cannonball, towards her destination.

_Rain. _

That was the first thing that hit her as she appeared in a small, dirty alley gasping for breath and cracking her neck back into place gingerly. She _hated _travelling by Vortex Manipulator, and tried to resist using it unless travelling through time which, of course, she had managed to modify hers to do whilst sat on the side of the lake, before she'd been chased off by that damned swan.

Already soaking wet from her unexpected bath in the lake, and becoming increasingly aware that she'd catch her death if she didn't find somewhere warm and/or dry to sit down soon, Jenny began trudging towards the high-street situated in front of her.

As she reached it, she glanced around. The last time she had been to Earth it had been almost two hundred years ago for her, and the very beginning of the 21st century for the Earth itself. She'd stayed away after that for a reason- after the worst day of her life- and, looking around now, things hardly seemed to have changed.

Silly little Humans darted up and down the pavements gripping umbrellas above their heads, cars rolled along on the road, the occasional honk of an angry horn blared through the Sunday afternoon traffic, shop shutters were being drawn down as people finished early and headed home to their families.

_This world is so noisy_, Jenny thought to herself, as she set off in the direction of a park at the end of the high-street, having spotted an empty bandstand that would make a perfect cover until the downpour ceased. She noticed, whilst walking, that even the rain had its own distinct pattering sound as it bounced off the floor below her. _How does it not drive Humans mad?_

Upon reaching the crossroads that would take her over to the park on the opposite side of the road, the cry of a child snapped Jenny immediately out of her thoughts. To her right, a young mother was carrying a small girl across the road- away from the park and to their car parked opposite. The little girl was putting up quite a fight- kicking, screaming and waving her chubby little toddler's arms in the air, reaching out towards the park as though it would physically reach back and invite her to continue playing.

In her fits of rage, the child dropped a scruffy little teddy bear that she was holding into the middle of the road. Jenny came to a complete stop. The mother seemed not to have realised that her daughter had dropped the bear, and the child just sobbed harder as they reached the other side of the road and she was placed firmly on the pavement whilst her mother went to set up a car seat.

Even Jenny spotted the white truck speeding through the wet street later than she ought to have, having been too engrossed in watching the toddler step out, unnoticed by her mother, into the road to retrieve her beloved companion.

"Shit."

The word escaped Jenny's lips without her even realising, just as she didn't remember beginning to run until she was in the middle of the road and the child had been scooped up into her arms. The truck driver began to brake, having seen them stood in his path, but the wet surface meant he kept travelling anyway.

Knowing she wouldn't get out of the way in time, Jenny simply span on her heel and threw the child towards the outstretched arms of her, now, hysterical mother. Luckily she caught the child before, with a force that, regardless of the applied brakes, still took every inch of breath out of Jenny's body, the truck hit her and she was blasted off her feet, before sliding a good few metres along the wet road on her back.

The entire universe seemed to lapse into silence for a few moments as the familiar black spots exploded in front of Jenny's eyes but, after what seemed like an eternity, she took a painful, shallow breath and sat up slowly.

"Ow..."

Quickly assessing the source of her pain and the placement of the pools of blood around her, she concluded she had at least three broken ribs, a broken nose and a severely grazed back, plus plenty of bruises and cuts to add to the list.

Staggering to her feet and, for once, thinking how lucky she was to have her tough, resilient Time Lord DNA, she scooped her hat off the floor and looked over towards the white truck. Her first thought was that she hadn't flown quite as far as she'd originally thought but, calculating the distance she _had _travelled, she noted that the driver had been going at thirty two miles per hour as he hit her, even after slamming the brakes on.

The driver himself was still sat in the truck, gripping the steering wheel with white knuckles, and the expression on his face wasn't short of mortified. He seemed unable to move even if he'd wanted to so, sighing and hobbling over to pick up the teddy bear that still laid on the floor beneath the truck's grill, Jenny handed it back to the, now, giggling toddler._ Typical. _

"Thank you- thank you, for saving her... my baby, thank you," her mother sobbed, gripping Jenny's suddenly aching shoulder.

_What I wouldn't give to be able to just sleep for a thousand years right now_, Jenny thought, but said nothing and, instead, simply nodded in understanding at the hysterical mother.

She then turned on her heel again and walked back to the truck, before hammering on the bonnet to catch the driver's attention. He looked up slowly- shock prominent in his shimmering eyes- and stared at her.

"Alright mate?" she called, putting her thumbs up and nodding encouragingly. He nodded jerkily, hands gripping even tighter around the steering wheel. "On your way then."

She waved slightly, clutching her shattered ribs with her other hand, as she wandered across the street to the park side. Not even bothering to look back as she left the accident scene behind her, she followed the railings towards a gate at the end of the street.

That was when she saw him. A young man with a dark mass of hair, the colour of which very nearly matched the colour of her own short, dark locks. He leant against a tree, sheltering himself from the freezing rain, arms crossed, staring at her with piercing green eyes. She knew she should probably be worried, but in her current state she really didn't have the strength, so continued walking. The young man obviously had something to say to her, however, because he pushed himself away from the tree in order to stand in front of her.

"You just did a wonderful thing there, do you know that?" he asked, his voice deep and serious.

"Yeah, whatever. Just want to get on my way to be honest mate- I'm not great at being the centre of attention," she replied, suddenly quite awkward. She'd managed to pick up the British ineptness to take a compliment the last time she had been to Earth, and hadn't been able to shake it since.

"Are you hurt?" he asked her concernedly, pointing to the hand gripping her side. His eyes flickered to her nose, and she could feel the blood beginning to drip into her mouth and down her chin so, knowing she couldn't very well lie, compromised with, "It isn't that bad."

But the young man saw straight through her. The fogged over eyes that most probably signified a concussion, the slightly hunched form whilst gripping her ribs, the blood currently cascading from her nose down her chin and onto her, already, stained shirt, the ghostly pale, soaked skin. She quivered with cold as the water and icy evening air clung to her frail, dangerously skinny frame, and every little gust of wind forced an involuntary gasp from her blue lips. He even noticed, under all the blood that decorated her canvas-like skin, that fairly new burns spread across her hands, neck beneath her jacket at the back and the sides of her face. But none of that compared to the pain he saw, barely hidden, in her eyes. Even as she smiled nervously, the raw, untamed agony never left her surprisingly old, almost black irises. This girl was very far from _"isn't that bad."_

"Are you sure you're alright?" he asked again, worry knitted into his furrowed brow.

_Now _Jenny was beginning to worry. Why was he being so nice to her? No-one ever showed her kindness...

"Oh- just having a bad day, that's all. Nothing that a bit of time won't fix and, believe me, I have plenty of time." She smiled slightly ruefully.

"It's just, I'm a Doctor... of sorts. I could help you."

He took a step forwards and alarm bells suddenly went off in Jenny's head. A Doctor _of sorts_? She really didn't like the idea of fighting this guy off- he looked like he'd snap like a twig after just one punch- but she'd have no choice if he came any closer. He probably meant no harm, but Jenny couldn't take the risk. Over the years she'd learnt to trust nobody but herself so, trying to sidestep both him and conflict as a whole, she muttered, "No thanks."

As she moved around him, however, her hand brushed against his and it felt as though a concentrated shot of electricity, larger than any she had ever felt before, had been forced into her body through the point where they had touched. It surged through her veins like a flame, causing her to scream aloud with shock and pain and, as it reached her hearts, she felt them physically smacking against her bruised, broken ribcage in an attempt to reach out towards the man- the complete stranger. There was nothing sexual or lustful in the action, it was more a case of feeling as though the young man owned the other half of Jenny's soul and, together, they made a full person.

The flame continued to rage through her body until, with a blinding flash of white light before her eyes, images started filling her head like she was watching a movie. First was an old man with white hair and a black suit, then a younger man with black hair and a recorder, a third man with with curly blond hair and a red, frilly suit. The forth man had even curlier, darker blond hair with a hat and a long, colourful scarf; the fifth had some form of vegetable pinned to the lapel of his jacket. The sixth's coat made Jenny's eyes sting with its brightness and colour, the seventh was much older, with darker hair and carrying an umbrella, whereas the eighth looked like a 19th century gentleman. The ninth was completely different again- cropped dark hair and a battered leather jacket- and the tenth almost made her heart stop. The tenth wore a fitted suit and a long, brown overcoat, his hair combed into stylish points and the biggest, whitest grin of them all. He was her Doctor, her father, her creator.

But as soon as he was there, he was gone again, and his face was replaced by the floppy haired, green eyed, bow tie wearing youth that had stopped her only minutes before.

She couldn't remember when she had fallen to the floor but, as the images in her head came to a flickering stop, the first thing she noticed was the base of a tree about five inches from her face. She turned and groaned as pain racked her body from the shock and things she had just seen.

The young man was busy climbing to his feet having, apparently, fallen to the ground as well. His face was a mask of utter shock and terror, and Jenny was certain he had just seen her regenerations as well.

"You're not _a _Doctor, are you? You're _the _Doctor." Her voice shook as she watched him pull a small, stick-like device from the inside pocket of his jacket and point it at her, scanning her. She wasn't afraid any more, though. She didn't know what she was any more.

He ignored her completely, too engrossed in frantically flicking the device in his hand to gain some form of result. Jenny watched intently, panting slightly from the shock, pain and freezing cold rain still falling from the dirty grey clouds above them, as his face changed from one of shock to steely realisation. He looked up, tears pooling in the corners of his eyes and weariness spreading across his suddenly ancient face.

"Jenny?" His voice was no more than a horse whisper, but Jenny heard him quite clearly.

She had given up hope. She had been through so much- all on her own, always on her own- and she had stopped believing that she would ever find him again hundreds of years ago. She'd learnt to rely solely on herself but, now, with him stood before her, she realised that she had never needed him more.

"Dad!" Her voice was breathless as she sprang to her feet- all pain and injury momentarily forgotten as she hurled herself with all her strength into his bear-like embrace.

Her head barely came up to his chin, and she could feel his calming, steady double heartbeat as she rested her cheek against his chest. Other emotions would come later- she was almost certain of that- but, right now, all she felt was a warm sense of relief spreading through her war torn body. It felt, just for a moment, as though the weight of the entire universe had been lifted from her shoulders, and all she knew was that she never wanted to let this scrawny idiot go.

And then it all went terribly wrong.

In the midst of their sudden, almost drunken-like state of happiness, both Jenny and the Doctor failed to hear the gunshot, or the whistling as the metal, arrow-headed bullet came hurtling towards them from out of the rain. The only thing that alerted Jenny to the fact that her father- the only family she had in the entire universe, who she had only just been reunited with- had been shot was his sudden gasp of pain and the tenseness that exploded through his body. That, and the sudden mouthful of blood that he couldn't help but splutter into her face.

She continued to hold him, praying to gods that she no longer believed in that this was all just a terrible dream but, looking into his wide eyes, she saw the pain was all too real.

"Dad?"

He didn't seem able to hear her as he coughed up yet more blood before, all the strength leaving his body, he collapsed to the cold, wet ground.

_**A/N: OH NOES, WUT! Jenny just can't catch a break, can she? Bless her :') **_

_**I've been in a bit of a funny mood recently, and this, apparently, is the result of that. Where I always had the intention of reuniting Jenny with the Doctor, I never thought it would happen in a totally "normal" way because, let's face it, neither Jenny or the Doctor are even remotely normal! **_

_**Couple of random, slightly self-centred facts for you- 13****th**** March is actually my birthday, and it's my go-to date whenever I have to put one in a piece of writing. Also! I showed my mum this story the other day, and she made me realise that what I've done here is basically write myself a part into Doctor Who :') Dunno if I'm comfortable with her thinking I'm a slightly psychopathic manic-depressant, but whatever mum... **_

_**Anyway- I plan to update really soon, as I've already written half of the next chapter, so hopefully not as long to wait until the next instalment! :) **_


	6. Chapter 6

_**A/N: I attempted to upload this last night but there were some problems, so sorry if any of you kept getting emails from me D: But anyway! I wrote this one, originally, as part of chapter five but realised it was too long, so split it in two. A couple of different points of view this time as well. **_

_**R&R? Thanks guys :)**_

Jenny didn't panic. Some part of her had always known that their moment had been too simple, too perfect, and she was so used to heartbreak that, in a way, this really didn't surprise her at all. She didn't even question where the bullet had come from; the Doctor had so many enemies- she knew that after over four hundred years of getting mistaken for him- so naturally most of them wanted him dead.

But she couldn't just let him die- not now- so, as calmly as she could muster, she bent down to assess the wound. Blood poured in a steady, worryingly quick stream from a large hole blasted into the bottom of his back, which she could see through the clean slits in his clothes. With each laboured pant for oxygen, more blood was pumped from his body despite the arrowhead bullet being lodged deeply into the base of his back.

He was losing too much blood. Soon he would be too weak to regenerate, and then he'd be in big trouble.

"Dad?" Jenny asked urgently, gripping either side of his face in her hands. His eyes were closed, however, and he didn't seem able to hear her. "Dad?"

She had to move him, had to get him somewhere safe. Then a thought struck her.

"Doctor!" she yelled and his eyes snapped open, darting in every direction. It was almost as if _Dad _wasn't even in his dictionary. "Where's the Tardis?"

She asked this firmly and clearly, and he seemed to come round a bit before, taking a deep breath, he lifted a shaky hand and pointed.

"There."

Jenny followed the direction of his finger with her eyes and saw, much to her relief, the little blue box she had heard so much about neatly tucked away directly behind the bandstand.

A little voice in the back of her mind wondered how she'd missed it in the first place, but she had no time to dwell on that so, using what little strength _she _had left, she pulled the Doctor unsteadily to his feet and allowed him, as he moaned and cried out in pain, to lean almost fully on her.

Once he was upright she saw, even more worryingly that, where she had initially thought the bullet must have lodged deep in the Doctor's back, it had actually gone straight through him, and fell to the ground as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. The front of his shirt was beginning to congeal with blood now as well, and his face was whiter than any ghost Jenny had ever seen.

"Come on- I'm not going to let you die, but you need to help me get you back to the Tardis," she told him gently, yet firmly, scooping up the bullet for later. He looked like a poorly little boy in that moment but nodded, words simply failing him.

It was painfully slow work; each time they moved the Doctor cried out in agony, and each time the noise broke Jenny's hearts a little more. It didn't help that the park was quickly becoming a mud bath thanks to the still pouring rain. The Doctor had enough trouble walking as it was, and the mud meant his jelly-like legs slipped and slid everywhere.

_Come on, come on_, Jenny thought stubbornly to herself, eyes set on the blue box and half carrying, half dragging her father along with her.

"You... y-you need the... key," he panted quietly, dangerously short of breath as they, finally, reached the door.

Without hesitation, Jenny manoeuvred her arm from around her father's blood soaked waist and plunged her hand into his inside jacket pocket, pulling out a small, golden key moments later and forcing it into the lock.

The door swung open of its own accord, almost as if the Tardis knew they could use a little help, and they finally stepped out of the rain and into the warm, dry depths of the humming time machine.

* * *

><p>Amy Pond was the first to hear the front door swing open and, thinking it was about time the Doctor got back with their fish and chips, she went bounding down the stairs to the main control room.<p>

"You took your time! I was beginning to wonder if you'd got lost or-"

She came to a horrified stop when she saw him, half consciously draped across a small, exhausted teenage girl. A scattered line of blood trailed behind them in a steady stream from under a hand that was desperately trying to keep organs from falling out of the Doctor's abdomen. Her Doctor, her raggedy man, her best friend in the entire universe, was mortally wounded and she had no idea what was going on or what to do.

"RORY!" she screeched at the top of her lungs, making both the Doctor and the girl jump.

* * *

><p>Jenny was pretty much carrying the Doctor now- up the stairs and past the screeching, red-headed girl, having time only to note the fact that she wasn't Donna Noble.<p>

A young man with a rather beak-like nose threw himself up a set of stairs nearby, worry etched on his face before, spotting the Doctor's wound, went the colour of fresh snow.

"He's a- a nurse," the Doctor breathed in Jenny's ear, and she nodded with understanding.

"You- help me get him to the medical bay," she ordered, pointing in the young man's direction as her inner soldier kicked in.

Without hesitation (much to Jenny's relief), he raced forwards and grabbed hold of the Doctor, helping Jenny cart him up the stairs without question. Amy remained where she was for a moment, sobbing, too shocked even to move before, snapping herself out of it, she raced after them.

* * *

><p>The Tardis was like nothing Jenny had ever seen before, but she had no time to stop and admire it as she and the man, apparently, called Rory carried the Doctor into the medical bay. She could hear the fiery red-head bouncing off the walls somewhere behind them in an attempt to catch up.<p>

_She's _so _not Donna_.

"Ok, Rory, can you examine the wound? I'd say it cut through pretty neatly and, luckily, missed all his vital organs, but I don't know- I'm not a Doctor," Jenny reeled off information as they laid the barely conscious Doctor down on one of the many examination tables.

Rory nodded and, again, without question, quickly and efficiently removed the Doctor's jacket and shirt to get a better look at his wound. He went slightly paler at the amount of blood that was spilling everywhere, but Jenny quickly turned away to lock the door before the red-head got in- she had no patience for weeping women getting in her way at this moment in time.

She turned back to Rory. "Well?"

"Well the wound itself is pretty easy to take care of, it's the amount of blood he's lost that's worrying me," the young nurse said gravely. "He's going to end up regenerating, isn't he?"

"Too... weak," the Doctor gasped, making them both jump. Rory didn't seem to understand, but Jenny did completely.

"He means he's already lost too much blood. He's too weak- his wouldn't survive the regeneration," she explained quietly, tears threatening to spill from her eyes.

The Doctor held out a weak hand and Jenny took it tightly into her own, as though, by gripping onto him, she could prevent him from physically slipping away into death.

"So what do we do?" Rory asked, panicking slightly.

Jenny stared down into the pale, grimacing face of her father- the man she had met only once and who, up until this very moment, had always felt some form of resentment towards. But, after all this time, after everything she had ever heard or read or seen her father do, there was still a part of her that wanted to give him a second chance- prove her, gladly, wrong.

She couldn't let him die without at least trying to save him- it went against everything she consciously stood for- everything (and that wasn't a lot) that he had taught her.

"We save him."

The words rolled off her tongue without hesitation- they had become a default phrase that, in doubt, she always resorted to.

"Then get me a needle and thread, and quick about it," Rory ordered with a sudden professional, authoritative tone in his voice.

So, spinning in a complete circle to quickly take in her surroundings, her advanced mind instantly springing into action, Jenny began rummaging through drawers immediately. There was all matter of things in the drawers, some of which she didn't want to think about, but panic finally began to set in as Jenny realised she couldn't find a sterilised needle or medical thread.

"Jenny..."

The Doctor's weak, pleading voice drifted over to her, making her feel even more panicked and useless.

"Shut up, I'm trying, but your Tardis is RUBBISH!" she yelled, finally losing her rag, before immediately reigning her anger back in when she whipped round and saw the Doctor's shocked, pained expression.

As if the Tardis had heard her and felt guilty for not helping sooner, a drawer to Jenny's right popped open of its own accord, revealing several sterilised needles and yards of thread.

"Oh... thanks dear," she whispered instinctively, before racing over to scoop the materials up and hand them to a, now, rubber glove clad Rory.

He got quickly to work, only flinching as the door began to rattle and a hysterical, barely understandable Scottish brogue began screaming from the corridor.

"Now is not the time!" Jenny yelled at the door, halfway through rummaging through the drawers again- this time for painkillers. The Doctor's whimpering sobs were becoming too much for her to take.

"Here- take these," she told him, coming across a packet of maximum strength, instant relief alien painkillers she had found.

It wouldn't get rid of his pain altogether, but it should ease it somewhat, so she ripped the packet clumsily apart and managed to get two into his mouth.

Immediately after swallowing them (which he had a great difficulty doing), the Doctor's face instantaneously relaxed- his body going limp as the pain causing him to tense subsided. He closed his eyes and took a quick, calming breath.

Rory was almost finished with the stitching. With one final tug and a snip from a pair of scissors Jenny silently handed him, the Doctor's wounds- both front and back- were sealed. But that had never been most pressing problem. Rory and Jenny looked at each other- complete strangers- and could tell they were thinking exactly the same thing.

"What about the blood loss?"

It was Rory who was finally brave enough to voice their fears. Jenny ran a shaking hand across her forehead, a cold sweat beginning to form there.

"Well I don't suppose you have any spare Time Lord blood on ice, do you?" she asked, trying desperately to lighten the mood as a dark, crushing feeling clutched at her stomach.

"Even if we did, what'd be the chance of it being his blood type?" Rory asked despairingly.

Then, suddenly, as though he had been secretly listening to their entire conversation, the Doctor's eyes snapped open and he made an attempt to get up.

"I'm fine... can- can sort m-myself from... here..." he panted stubbornly, but as soon as he moved he looked as though he would pass out again.

"NO. For once in your life just sit down, shut up and let someone save _you_, will you?" Jenny yelled, waving her arms around angrily.

Rory kept the Doctor firmly in a sitting position as he attempted to reach out to Jenny, all the while thinking that he was quickly becoming really rather fond of this girl's quirky, unpredictable attitude.

But Jenny had realised something. As she'd thrown her arms around in an expression of her panicked rage, her eyes came to rest on a particular prominent vein sticking out of her wrist. She could almost physically see the pulsating of her blood being pumped around her body. Her _Time Lord _blood. Her blood that shared the exact DNA as the _Doctor_...

"Oh, I'm good," she grinned proudly, as her amazing mind put all the links together to produce a fully formed, rather brilliant plan.

"What?" Rory asked, helping the Doctor to lie back down as the remaining colour left his face- becoming instantly weaker.

"Blood transfusion," she replied simply, knowing she didn't have much time.

"Jenny- no!"

The Doctor's voice was surprisingly strong considering his body was so weak and helpless. He had put the pieces together as well, and had come to the same conclusion.

Jenny ignored his continued pleas for her to _stop and think_, Rory's questioning looks that told her he didn't have a clue as to what was going on, and focused on finding what she was looking for.

"Jenny- you can't give me your blood! _You _need it!" the Doctor pleaded, too weak to move at all now, but determined to keep focused.

"Wasn't planning on giving you all of it..." she replied shortly, still rummaging around.

"But you'll still w-weaken yourself! You don't know... know what you're doing, and I won't have you endanger yourself for m-me-"

"Well I have time, don't I? I can produce more blood- my body doesn't need to repair itself. But you- you're too weak!" she argued, spinning on her heel to look at him. "If I don't do this you will die, and I promised you I'd save you!"

"W-why are you being so adamant about this? After... what I've d-done to you?"

"Because if I save _you_, maybe it'll make up for all the ones I-"

Jenny couldn't finish. She didn't have to- the Doctor knew exactly what she was talking about, and it broke his already failing hearts. Her outburst was followed by a short, stunned silence in which she found what she was looking for. Taking a deep breath, she stuck one end of the cannula into her protruding vein before, adding a tube and another cannula to the end as her blood began to roll up the tube, she approached the Doctor.

"Hot off the press," she said quietly, the beginnings of a sad smile spreading across her gaunt features.

The Doctor, unable to physically stop her by this point, took one last chance at changing her mind with his words, as she pressed the cannula into his arm.

"Jenny- I can't lose you. Not again."

There was so much pain, so much mind-numbing despair in his voice that Jenny almost _did _remove the cannula. _Almost. _

"You didn't lose me though, did you?" she asked softly, a thick, enveloping darkness beginning to cloud both of their visions. "You left me."

These were the last words either of them heard before the darkness engulfed them both fully and they were lost to the world.

_**A/N: Before you ask, I don't know whether the medical stuff is right. It sounds pretty feasible though, right? I hope so... Anyway, hope you enjoyed. Next chapter might not be up for a while- college work is beginning to pile up- but I'll get on it ASAP :)**_

_**R&R? :)**_


	7. Chapter 7

_**R&R? **_

"_You left me."_

The Doctor was drifting through darkness, his body as light as a feather and the pain from all his recent toils gone. Was he dead? He really hoped not- he had to get back from wherever he was to the Tardis. To Amy and Rory and... Jenny.

Her words seemed to reverberate around the, seemingly, never ending, swirling blackness again and again. The last words he might ever hear and, if he didn't suspect he was already dead, that thought would have probably killed him.

Jenny was just another in the long line of people who's lives he'd screwed up, who he had subconsciously manipulated into trusting him enough to feel alright about dying for him. Possibly the worst part of that, though, was that he allowed them to do it time and time again. If anything, he led them by the hand to their deaths like lambs to the slaughter. His best friends, the people he loved, even complete strangers- they were all lost in the end.

Was Jenny here somewhere, too? Floating around in this godforsaken place, trying desperately to escape- to, perhaps, find him? He hoped with everything that he was that she was safe, that she was still alive and Amy and Rory were taking care of her.

_Amy and Rory. _What would they think? He and Jenny had appeared from nowhere, covered in blood and with no explanation ready at all. He had to give it to the Ponds'- they knew when was the time to speak and when was the time to act. He supposed they must have learnt that from him.

The Doctor looked up. A distant white light, growing ever larger as he approached it from out of the dark, and familiar voices growing louder and louder the closer he got, pulled him from his thoughts. A small pang of fear ran through him- what if this was it? The end?

The voices stopped as the light loomed only metres from him, frightening him further. He thought he'd be ready for death- willing for it to come- but he realised, once faced with the actual prospect of it, he still had so much to live for.

Especially now. He had Jenny to think of- the impossible girl who had fought off death for him. He deserved to do at least the same for her, but the white light was drawing him ever closer, as though invisible tethers were tugging at every inch of him. He couldn't stop it no matter how hard he tried.

He began to yell, physically pulling against the imaginary strings, surely, reeling him in to his death.

Funnily enough though, through his yells and grunts, he thought he heard Jenny's voice. Impossible, he knew perfectly well, but he couldn't help straining his ears to listen, even if just to comfort himself.

"_I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I tried my best, dad."_

Those words hurt him more than what her actual words had. Why was his mind trying to make him feel even more guilty?

The white light finally began to envelop him; it soothed as it touched his skin, like fresh bedsheets. Wait... it didn't _feel _like fresh bedsheets, it _was _fresh bedsheets! As he drifted further into the light a sudden, agonising pain seemed to smack him in the abdomen and he gasped, before everything was engulfed into the mystifying, piercing light.

* * *

><p>Slowly, the Doctor opened his sore, bleary eyes. It took a few moments for his sight to return to him, but he had been right about the fresh bedsheets- he could feel them pressed gently around his dead-weight body.<p>

He realised his breath was coming out in short, shallow gasps and, as his sight finally cleared and came back into focus, he found he was staring at the ceiling of the medical bay. He was _alive. _

Tilting his stiff, aching neck a few inches to the side to glance across the room, it became apparent that he was totally alone. But then he spotted the small, skinny, motionless body laid on the bed next to him and vomit began to rise in his throat.

"Jenny?"

His voice came out as a rough, strangled cry of pure emotion, but the body didn't move. _Oh God. _

"Jenny?" he yelled again with every ounce of strength he could muster and, after a few, agonising moments, the body snapped up, rubbing her eyes.

_Oh thank God- she was only resting_, the Doctor thought to himself as a sigh escaped his lips, more relieved than at any other time in his life.

Jenny wasn't looking her best by any means, though. If it were possible, she was even thinner than before- her still bloodstained shirt hanging open over tight bandages that covered her from the top of her chest to the bottom of her stomach- and he could still make out every rib even through her dressings. The deep bags under her eyes were a rich purple colour, making them look increasingly like bruises because of the otherwise pale gauntness that hung about her skin. Her short, jagged hair was matted with blood and sweat- the ends of which curled around the rim of a small, battered top hat that she, apparently, refused to take off. Her nose was heavily bruised now from her car accident, and was strapped in place by a piece of medical tape.

She reached out for her red, authentic British military jacket and pulled it on to hide the stains on her shirt and blood soaking into her bandages, all the time watching the Doctor disbelievingly through sunken, tired eyes.

"This whole _me saving your life _thing is getting to be a bit of a bad habit, isn't it?" she asked, smiling widely with relief as, with difficulty, she swung her frail legs over the side of the bed to get a better look at him.

"Don't think you've gotten away with it, either," the Doctor breathed in reply, closing his eyes as even those simple words sucked the life from him. "How long have I been unconscious?"

"Five days," Jenny told him seriously, peering analytically into his eyes to check for any signs that he might not be alright. "You coded twice."

_Five days?_ Surely it couldn't have been that long? It had seemed like only moments to the Doctor, but Jenny's further deterioration since he last saw her told him she wasn't lying. Besides, what reason could she possibly have for hiding the truth?

Pushing any doubtful thoughts from his mind, the Doctor took to looking around the room again. He was laid in a newly made bed with an extremely comfortable mattress- fresh, crisp bandages covering the bottom of his, otherwise, naked top half. His skin appeared pale, but it was hard to judge whether that was due to his current condition or the poor lighting in the room. Sticky pads littered his chest and a steady, double beep was chirping from a heart rate machine hooked up next to him, alongside an IV drip that was currently feeding a clear liquid into his left arm.

"Rory did a brilliant job," Jenny commented, noticing him studying the numerous wires and machines surrounding him. "I double checked."

"And Amy? What do you think of her?" the Doctor asked, glancing back over to her and grinning slightly as her expression changed.

"Ah, Amelia Pond. How do I even begin to express my feelings towards Amelia Pond?" Jenny asked herself, looking around the room as though it might offer her some answers.

"She _is _a bit... feisty... isn't she?" the Doctor chucked to himself.

"Not the F word I would have used, but whatever..."

"Now, be nice," the Doctor scolded her, but couldn't keep a small smile from his face. "Rory didn't do as good a job on you though, did he? You look awful, no offence..."

"Yeah, well, I haven't left the room in five days and, unlike you, I was conscious the entire time," Jenny retorted dryly, before getting unsteadily to her feet and, pulling an empty wheelchair towards her, sat next to the Doctor's bed.

"What? What do you mean you haven't left the room? What about food?"

"I haven't eaten."

"You haven't eaten in five days?" the Doctor cried incredulously, using all of his strength to pull himself into a sitting position against his pillows.

"Well, technically, I haven't eaten in eight days. Yeah- long story but, before we _bumped into each other_, I got myself into a spot of bother and let's just say they didn't feed me as regularly as was deemed acceptable by Human Resources..." Jenny explained nonchalantly, raising a questioning eyebrow at her father's shocked expression. "Turns out I'm more like you than you thought- my Time Lord genes mean I'm tougher and stronger than most, so I can, apparently, go for days without food."

"What about sleep? Have you been sleeping enough?" he pressed her for information firmly.

"The answer to that is redundant- I don't need sleep," Jenny replied, raising the other eyebrow.

"Everybody needs sleep!"

"Fine, what I meant to say was that I can function perfectly well without sleep," Jenny told him, growing quickly tired of their confrontation.

"But why? Why put yourself through all that? Especially after getting hit by that truck; I'm certain the Tardis would have found you a room if you'd wandered around long enough. Why'd you stay, cooped up, in here?" the Doctor asked, brow furrowing.

"Well why d'you think? I didn't want to leave you on your own, did I? I'm frustratingly loyal like that, you see," Jenny replied softly, her hard, dark eyes fixed pointedly on the floor.

The Doctor felt another pang of guilt flood through him. Even after all this time- everything he had done and said to her- Jenny was still faithful to him. They all were. He was like a naughty child- they could turn their backs on him, even resent him for the things he did, but as soon as he called out for help they would come running to his aid. They just couldn't help themselves. And, secretly, there was a very small part of him that loved that. He craved their love and respect, and that thought sickened him.

Finding he had nothing to say that could possibly help any of the confused, hurt emotions Jenny was most probably feeling, the Doctor changed the subject.

"So. Where _are _Amy and Rory?"

Jenny looked up. "In the kitchen, I think."

"Why are they in the kitchen?" the Doctor thought aloud.

"Probably taking a shower," Jenny said sarcastically, chuckling sadly before growing serious. "No, seriously? I think they needed to sit down for a while with a cup of tea and think."

"Why?" asked the Doctor, suddenly nervous. "What's wrong with them?"

"Nothing. They just needed some time to... recover..."

"From what, Jenny?"

Jenny paused slightly, before replying softly with, "From me telling them... who I am. What happened." A rosy tinge began to creep across her cheeks, suddenly giving her face more life. "I don't think they believed me."

A short pause followed these words, in which Jenny and the Doctor stared at each other, trying to find the words to convey their thoughts and feelings.

"Listen, dad, I'm sorry for what I said before-"

"Look, Jenny, if I'd known you were alive I wouldn't have-"

They stopped once they realised they were speaking simultaneously, a mirrored grin spreading across their features.

"I could get Amy and Rory for you, if you'd like?" Jenny asked, still smiling.

Neither of them finished their previous sentence. They didn't have to. Whether it was their identical biological makeup, or their shared sense of loss and suffering that came only with hundreds of years worth of life, they seemed to have a connection that penetrated deep beneath their surfaces to where their inner most fears, demons and dangerous thoughts found their home. Their minds were both brilliant and cursed enough to be able to fill in the blanks that the other either didn't want to, or couldn't speak aloud.

"Yeah. I need to have words with them about not being gathered, crying hysterically, around my deathbed anyway," the Doctor joked, watching worriedly as, once again, Jenny got unsteadily to her feet.

She hobbled around the other side of her bed to a cabinet, on top of which sat a little golden bell. The Doctor felt an overwhelming sense of empathy at the pain Jenny's ribs and other assorted injuries were obviously causing her, but this was largely overshadowed by the pride he felt that she refused to let any of it beat her.

With her stood, and the shock of seeing her again mixed with the agony of his injuries gone, he could finally look her over properly. The first thing that struck him was her costume. She appeared to have been thrown backwards through history, picking up random garments of clothing as she went. He wouldn't have thought a black top hat (she had a _hat?_), red military jacket, smart, white buttoned shirt and black-and-grey pinstriped skinny jeans would make a good combination, but apparently they did. Besides, he couldn't really talk with the clothes he wore.

He couldn't help but smile, however, at the pair of red Converse sneakers she had on her feet to top it all off. She had always been too much like him.

Jenny took the bell in her frail, bony hand and rang it loudly three times, before turning back to join her father beside his bed, grinning.

"Wait for it," she told him, lifting her head to listen with a smirk on her face.

They sat for a few moments in complete silence, just listening, before the distant sound of shouting and banging filled their ears, getting steadily louder and louder.

"Aaaand there it is..."

Rory came bursting into the room, tripping over his own feet in an attempt to reach them faster. Amy soon followed, short of breath and wild hair draped across her face.

"What's the matter? We heard the bell- is he alright? He's not-"

The Ponds' came to an abrupt halt once they saw both Jenny and the Doctor staring at them, eyebrows raised and identical, childish smirks plastered on their faces.

"So... guess who woke up?" Jenny grinned, pointing both thumbs cheesily towards the Doctor.

Rory immediately crossed the room and began examining the Doctor's injuries and machine results silently, but Amy stayed where she was, glaring at Jenny.

"You rang three times," she growled, irritated.

"Oh, did I? I didn't realise..." Jenny replied innocently, but was unable to keep a small smile from flickering across her lips.

"What does ringing three times mean?" the Doctor asked, growing increasingly aware of just how much tension was present between the two women. _This won't end well. _

"I wasn't comfortable with letting Jenny disappear with all her injuries and, anyway, she didn't want to leave your side, so we set up a system that'd let us know if something happened in here while we weren't around. One bell meant your heart rate had changed or you had a temperature or something, two meant your dressing or pyjamas or covers needed changing and three-"

"Three meant you'd bloody coded or died!" Amy finished Rory's calm explanation with a fiery anger.

"Well there's the flaw in the plan right there! We didn't have a number to say he'd woken up," Jenny told them airily, busy trying to scrape dried blood from under her fingernails.

The Doctor looked over at her sternly, and found her chuckling to herself. He sighed.

"Jenny, why on Earth would you do that?"

"Because it's amusing?" Jenny replied, genuine confusion as to why she was the only one laughing laced into her tone.

"She told us she's your daughter, but she can't be," Amy told the Doctor, ignoring Jenny's very existence altogether.

_Oh, this is very not good_, the Doctor thought to himself. _The universe isn't likely to survive an argument between these two_.

"Why would you think that?" he asked as neutrally as he could muster, shooting a _help me_ glance at Rory, which earned him a shrug.

"Because a child of yours wouldn't be so..."

"Good looking? Clever? Cultured?" Jenny offered helpfully, waving her hand dramatically with each suggestion.

"Arrogant." Amy corrected her with a smirk of her own. Jenny looked genuinely shocked.

"Wow- rude much?" she asked slightly angrily, preparing herself for a fight by sitting up properly.

"Right- enough!" Rory told them firmly, slamming his clipboard down onto the Doctor's bedside cabinet. "Look, we've all been through a lot in the past few days but, seriously, you're like a couple of kids fighting for their father's attention!"

"I _am _a kid fighting for my father's attention!" Jenny retorted almost immediately, earning a sigh from Rory and an appreciative chuckle from the Doctor.

"Look- Amy, go and cool off outside. Jenny- get back in bed. I know you haven't been sleeping," Rory instructed, giving Jenny the evil eye whilst remaining strong against his wife's killer glare.

Realising neither of them was going to win, Amy reluctantly left the room and Jenny laid back down atop her covers. The Doctor turned to Rory, impressed.

"You have no idea what it's been like," Rory told him wearily. "I'd have happily traded places with you if I'd known this was how my week was going to turn out."

The Doctor couldn't help but laugh at Rory's put-out expression, and was shot an annoyed glare from his friend.

"Next time I'll send you out to get the fish and chips then, shall I?"

_**A/N: Did I just, maybe, actually finish a chapter on a sort of high note? I think there's something wrong with me...**_

_**I'd just like to remind you all that this story has always been primarily character based and not "action" based so, with that in mind, I'm thinking that the next chapter will probably be the last (depending on how long it is and whether it needs to be chopped in half...)**_

_**Are you enjoying it? R&R to let me know! :D **_


	8. Chapter 8

_**A/N: Oh my God it's the last chapter! D: I'd just like to take a minute to thank everyone who story alerted and commented on this- for a first story I'd say it went pretty well, and it means a lot that you took the time to read :) Hope you enjoy the last chapter!**_

_The universe really is beautiful. _

Jenny was sat in the open doorway of the Tardis' main console room, her legs dangling over the edge and amongst the stars as they drifted, peacefully, through the depths of space; she twirled the arrowhead bullet that had injured her father absent-mindedly in her small hands. The others were all in their beds and so the Tardis' lights had been lowered, meaning that the stars and galaxies spreading out in front of her seemed to shine more brightly than she had ever noticed before.

_Magical._

"What're you doing up so late?" a familiar voice asked gently from behind her, and she turned to find the Doctor padding, barefoot, towards her in his Tardis blue pyjamas.

"I was scanning this," Jenny replied, guiding him into a sitting position beside her in the doorway and showing him the bullet. "Trying to find its origin."

It had been roughly a week since he had awoken from his coma but, even with his tough Time Lord DNA, the Doctor still struggled to move at times and often needed help.

"How did you figure out how to work the scanners?" he asked her curiously, glancing back towards the central column of his beloved machine.

"She's been speaking to me ever since I arrived- she told me what to do... She sings to me sometimes," Jenny replied, a small smile touching her face. "It's from the Jiphavati tribe of Naphoon apparently."

"Ah, yes, they really aren't very fond of me. I might have accidentally broken their sacred bowl of indifference last time I visited. It doesn't make sense- I told them- how can they worship something indifferently? They really weren't happy though..." The Doctor turned to Jenny as he trailed off, an eyebrow raised.

"What?" Jenny asked, squirming slightly under his gaze.

"A scan takes literally a second. What's the real reason that you're awake so late?" he asked her seriously.

"I could ask you the same question..." Jenny replied cheerily, but the Doctor held firm. He knew she was hiding something and so, knowing she wouldn't get away with it, she told him softly: "Nightmares."

"Snap," the Doctor replied, nodding slightly bitterly. Jenny looked up.

"You get nightmares too?" The Doctor nodded in response. "What're yours about?"

"Oh, just the complexity of life, the bad decisions I've made and the consequences that have therefore come to pass because of them. Faces from my past, conversations of times gone by, even things that seemed happy at the time- it all haunts me now... What about you? What're your dreams about?" the Doctor finished with another question, looking directly at Jenny again in the same moment that she looked away.

"The same, really. Except my nightmares seem to be focused on one bad decision- the worst decision I've ever made- and three faces that I'll never forget."

The Doctor saw tears begin to roll down Jenny's cheeks and it frightened him. After everything that had happened in the last couple of weeks- finding each other again, seeing him shot and even fearing he might die- the Doctor hadn't once seen Jenny cry. Therefore, whatever her nightmares consisted of, whatever she had done, it must've been either terrifying or monstrous.

"What happened?" he asked softly, unable to stop himself from reaching out to wipe a tear away from Jenny's face. She looked so young, so childlike and fragile, and it was devastating. He just wanted to give her a huge hug, to make all her pain and guilt go away, but even he didn't have that sort of power.

He'd messed up big time with this one.

Jenny sighed and took a deep breath. "Well, did you know I was married?" she asked, finally braving a glance at the Doctor. He shook his head silently, signalling her to go on. "No, of course not, I didn't tell you... But I was. And to a Human, no less."

Jenny chuckled sadly as the Doctor smiled.

"Had to get some things from me, didn't you? And it just so happened to be a love for Humans," he told her kindly, before waiting for her to go on.

"This was in a previous regeneration, of course, before I was this," she gestured to her young body. "His name was Tom. He had dark hair and blue eyes and the most _beautiful _soul I had ever seen, and have ever seen since. And... oh, I loved him with every fibre of my being. I felt lost before he found me. I was empty unless his hand was in mine, I missed him every time he left the room, even for just a few seconds. I couldn't sleep unless he was lying next to me..." Jenny trailed off, tears threatening to spill down her pale cheeks again.

The Doctor didn't know what to say. Seeing a, supposed, thirteen year old speaking about a love so unconditional and life altering, albeit in a slightly clichéd manner, was totally surreal. But he didn't doubt for a second that what she said was true, which somehow made the whole thing a lot worse. He had a feeling that something terrible was coming, and he felt a strange sense of guilt over the fact that, if he'd waited longer for her, he could have spared her the nightmares that now haunted her nights.

"We were married after six months, and within five years we had two kids," Jenny told him, having to stop again to compose herself.

"I'm a grandfather?" the Doctor couldn't help but ask, a small, shocked smile spreading across his face.

"The emphasis in that sentence being on the word _had," _Jenny replied, wiping tears from her eyes as the Doctor's face fell.

"Oh."

"I have a picture of them here..." Jenny said, taking off her top hat and pulling a photograph out of it, which she offered to the Doctor.

"You keep a photo in your hat?" he asked as she put it back on her head.

"It was Frank Sinatra's. I had it modified in fifty first century France and now it's bigger on the inside," she explained, not able to stop herself from chuckling at the Doctor's expression.

"So not only are you allowed a hat, but it's bigger on the inside? That's just not fair," the Doctor pouted slightly, turning to the photograph in his hands.

A handsome young man in his late twenties stood on a beach, a boy of around seven with dark masses of curly hair sat on his shoulders. One of the man's arms was supporting the boy, whereas the other arm was wrapped around the waist of a beautiful young woman with long locks of fiery red hair. A younger boy of about four, with sandy coloured hair, was clutching at the woman's leg, but they were all smiling in a state of complete happiness and love.

"There's Tom," Jenny pointed to her husband with nothing but an agonising adoration in her eyes that the Doctor knew only too well. "There's Hugo, and he's Max," she pointed to the older boy, then the younger one.

"Who's that?" the Doctor asked, pointing to the ginger woman.

"That was me a couple of regenerations back."

The Doctor almost choked. _Not only does she have a hat that's bigger on the inside, but she's been ginger as well? Where is the justice in the world? _He thought to himself, but didn't voice his opinions, knowing it wasn't the time.

"They're gone now," Jenny whispered softly, taking the photograph back, putting it in her hat and placing it back on her head.

"Gone? Gone where?" the Doctor asked, suddenly confused.

Jenny turned to him, her eyes now red from the amount of crying she had done. "Well where's the one place they could go that I, of all people, could never follow?"

"They're dead," the Doctor whispered, finally understanding.

"Yes they are," Jenny croaked, her voice finally cracking with emotion. "I was stupid enough to think that I could just settle down and not expect my history to catch up with me. I was working for Torchwood at the time- you need to go and see Jack at some point, by the way, because he's pissed with you- and there was this weird sort of religious cult thing; they were offering sacrifices up to this alien creature that had crashed on Earth as though it were a god. I didn't realise until it was too late that the reason it had crashed was because it was in such a rush to flee from a planet that I'd totally obliterated years before, and had lost control of its ship... Needless to say that they ripped my family from me and slaughtered them in revenge right before my eyes..." Jenny looked up, tears pouring freely again. "That's what my nightmares are about- I hear the screams and cries of my children as their heads were sliced from their bodies and their innocent blood cascaded to the floor. And, unlike me, they didn't come back... I see the look of disappointment and utter fear etched into my true love's face as he took his last breath. I don't think I'll ever sleep again."

They sat in silence for a very long time after that, both lost for words. The Doctor opened his mouth a few times as if he were aboutto speak, but quickly closed it again before anything stupid could come out. There were simply no words in the known universe that had a hope of consoling someone who had witnessed what Jenny had witnessed, and so he didn't try to find them. She wasn't a child- he wouldn't patronise her- so, unable to express just how sorry he was in any other way, he pulled her into a tight hug and allowed her to soak his shirt with her tears.

They didn't speak for what felt like hours. The Doctor forced himself to stay silent, convinced that Jenny would speak when she wanted to, so stuck to holding her quivering body close to his and gently rocking her backwards and forwards in a soothing rhythm.

Finally, just as the Doctor thought he couldn't take any more of Jenny's out-of-character breakdown, her tears slowed and her breathing calmed to a normal rate.

"I resented you for a very long time, you know," she stated softly once she was certain she was able to speak without her voice shaking again. "For making me what I am, for being who you are... You told me on the day I was created that I was an echo, not a real Time Lord, because real Time Lords have a shared history- a shared suffering. It's funny, at first I wanted to prove you wrong, but now... well, now I _have _suffered, and if that makes me a real Time Lord then... _I don't want to be one_," she leaned towards him at this and the Doctor saw anger, confusion, hurt and countless other emotions playing across her tear stricken face at the same time.

It was almost too much for the Doctor to take. He had totally forgotten about the conversation they'd had in that damp cell before Jenny had, rather brilliantly, broken them free. He'd forgotten and she'd remembered every word. Did what he'd said to her haunt her dreams now as well?

"I was _so _angry for _such _a long time after what happened. But it wasn't just a normal anger- it was possessive. It ate away at my soul. The littlest things would set me off and I'd literally go blind with fury; I'd wake up in the morning draped in dead bodies or torrents of blood with no recollection as to what or how any of it happened."

Jenny turned to look at the Doctor with such a burning intensity that he had to look away, out towards the stars, for fear she might physically burn him with the fire in her eyes.

"There's a monster hiding beneath my skin," she whispered, voice filled with a sudden fear. "One day I realised it wasn't your fault, of course, and tried my very best to change. But it just seemed that, no matter how hard I tried to be a good person, no matter how hard I tried to be like you, I could just never save enough people to make up for the ones I killed. Never make up for my family's deaths..."

"You shouldn't aspire to be like me, you know. I'm not a very good role model," the Doctor replied quietly, risking a glance back over at her.

"Oh, I know. I've read and heard about the things you've done- the civilisations you've murdered and all that... but you're my dad. When I saw you on Messaline, you were glorious. You didn't destroy them, you saved them! Is it so wrong that I wanted to do the same?" Jenny asked confusedly.

"No. No, it's not wrong at all. Helping people is one of the greatest gifts you can ever give," the Doctor told her as, gently, she rested her head on his shoulder.

"But I can never save all of them. I can't save the ones that matter," she replied quietly, closing her eyes in a pre-emptive strike against the tears that, once again, threatened to fall.

"Jenny, listen to me because this might possibly be the most important and grown up thing I ever say to you. _No life is more important that another_. I know it's hard for you to understand after everything you've been though, but please believe me when I say there are a countless number of individuals out there who're sleeping safely in their beds because of you. And that _matters_. No, you can't save them all, but everything has its time and everything ends. The fact that you've gone though so much and have come out of the other side still _wanting _to help people proves just how strong and brilliant you really are. I couldn't be more proud of you than I am right now, and I'm pretty sure your family would be too," he nodded seriously to back up his statement, taking Jenny's face in his hands so he could make sure she understood just how serious he really was.

Jenny smiled sadly through yet more tears and nodded in understanding. Even though a large part of her was dying inside due to the pain of all her unearthed, previously repressed memories, she felt her hearts soar in the knowledge that her father was proud of her.

She sighed, placing her head back on his shoulder. "We were never really meant to be happy though, were we?"

"What do you mean?" the Doctor asked, looking down at her on his shoulder.

"Well the majesty and breath-taking beauty of the entire universe had to come with a price, didn't it? And that price just so happened to be soul crushing loneliness," Jenny stated matter-of-factly, resolved to her plight now.

"But you don't have to be completely lonely. You have me," the Doctor smiled, taking her hand in his.

"You mean I can stay?" Jenny asked, barely daring to believe what he'd just said.

"I think it would be a huge mistake on my part to let you out of my sight to be honest. But only if you're nicer to Amy," he replied firmly.

"Well I _was _thinking of the easiest way to push her out into space when you found me," Jenny grinned, before growing serious again. "I don't really have a problem with her, you know? It's just... Donna was the closest thing to a mother I've ever had and, well, Amy isn't the same..."

"I know," the Doctor sighed gently. He wasn't going to push it any further- he could tell this was as understanding as Jenny was going to get, and he was grateful to her for even that.

"Thank you, though. For everything." Jenny sniffed away her remaining tears as she looked from the stars in front of her to her father.

"Don't mention it," the Doctor replied, smiling to himself properly for the first time in a very long time.

* * *

><p>When Rory awoke light was streaming in through the closed curtains in his and Amy's bedroom. He hated those windows- they weren't even real, just holograms, and served no purpose whatsoever.<p>

Turning onto his side and expecting to find his beautiful wife, however, he was instead met with an empty bed. _It's way too early for her to be up..._he thought nervously to himself as he clambered from between the sheets and wandered to the door.

Out in the corridor, he was relieved to find Amy, fully dressed, leaning against the door frame of a room further down.

"What're you doing?" he asked curiously, but was immediately shushed by his fiery other half.

"Come and have a look at this," she whispered with a grin, waving him over to her.

Intrigued, Rory joined her in the doorway and, pulling her backwards to wrap his arms around her waste, he peered over her shoulder and into the room.

"Why are you looking in the Doctor's room?" he asked a little too quickly, making Amy tut with annoyance.

"He wasn't in the console room. He's always in the console room- I was worried," she told him truthfully. "But look."

She pointed past the seemingly random, broken objects, the dirty clothes and the gadgets to, underneath at least half a dozen model aeroplanes that hung on strings from the ceiling, a large four-poster bed stood. And on that bed- both in a deep, calming slumber- the Doctor lay with Jenny wrapped tightly in his arms, pulled protectively to his chest. They both looked totally at peace for the first time since Jenny's arrival- probably longer.

"They might both act like three year olds, but I have to admit that might be the sweetest thing I've ever seen," Amy gushed quietly, squealing with delight as Jenny twitched and smiled in her sleep, snuggling closer to her father.

"He sleeps with a night light..." Rory commented, pointing to a glowing orb on the Doctor's bedside cabinet, illuminating Jenny's battered top hat and a fez sat side-by-side next to it.

"After everything he's seen, wouldn't you?" Amy asked, turning to look at Rory.

"Fair enough," he shrugged.

They stood and watched the pair for a while before they spoke again.

"I'm glad they found each other," Amy whispered, resting her head on Rory's shoulder. "Maybe she'll calm him down a bit- give him a reason to be great."

"What're the chances of that, though?" Rory replied, sighing deeply into his wife's hair. "Knowing our luck, she'll be another mentally unstable, educated idiot who thinks bow-ties are cool..."

_**A/N: And there we are! **_

_**I always intended on ending this story with that line, but I had no idea how the rest of it was going to turn out lol :') And I'm not ashamed to say that there were moments where I cried whilst writing this... D:**_

_**I have another (semi) interesting fact for you- the conversation between Jenny and the Doctor in the doorway of the Tardis was the initial idea I had for this story, and built all the rest around it.**_

_**But anyway! Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it :) R&R? **_


End file.
